What is a CBC test and why take a CBC test?

What is a CBC test?

The full form of CBC is Complete Blood Count. CBC is used for blood counts or blood tests. It helps healthcare providers identify a variety of disorders and conditions. Providers use this test to screen for disease and to adjust treatment.

CBC measures and counts your blood cells. To do this take a sample of your blood and send it to a lab. The lab does a series of tests to evaluate your blood cells. These tests help the provider monitor health.

Why take a CBC test?

  • To review overall health:

    Physicians may perform a complete blood count or CBC as part of a regular medical examination to monitor your overall health and screen for various diseases such as anemia or leukemia.

  • To diagnose the condition of the body:

    If you experience weakness, fatigue, fever, inflammation, sores or bleeding, the doctor may recommend a complete blood count or test. If the doctor suspects you have an infection, the test can help confirm the diagnosis.

  • Monitoring medical status

    If you are diagnosed with a blood disorder that affects the number of blood cells, the doctor may use a complete blood count to monitor your condition.

  • To monitor treatment:

    If you take drugs that affect blood cell counts, a complete blood count or test may be needed to monitor your health.

The CBC test is basically done to find out the condition of the whole body, to see if all the components of the blood are OK.

Different diseases cause imbalane in blood components. The CBC test is done to find out if something like this has happened or not. It can be done before donating blood to someone.